U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,436 issued to R. G. Chesley on Oct. 20, 1964 discloses one form of a spiral meat slicer. The present invention comprises an improvement over such a spiral meat slicer.
Additional spiral meat slicers are shown in Herman E. Frentzel, U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,054 issued on Apr. 20, 1976 for "Meat Slicer" and in L. C. Schmidt and Richard P. Farbolin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,370 issued on Sept. 27, 1977 for "Spiral Meat Slicer With Improved Reciprocating Knife Structure." The spiral meat slicers disclosed in the aforementioned patents have proved to be generally operable in service. However, a major problem encountered with spiral meat slicers of the type disclosed in and claimed in the above patents is that various parts, particularly the structures associated with the knife holder, oscillator and carriage have been subject to rapid wear. The wear generally occurs because of excessive vibration of parts of this reciprocating knife structure used for cutting the meat. A variety of adjustment problems have been found to exist in connection with maintaining such devices.
The present invention has reference to a number of improvements which coacting provide a substantial improvement in the durability and service of the spiral meat slicer oscillator. The present invention provides an improved elevator assembly mounting system whereby it is possible through an improved bridge structure to simplify the mounting apparatus and facilitate the manner by which the elevator assembly could be removed for servicing or adjusting.
The present invention further includes an arrangement for an improved end play adjustor assembly which controls the vertical movement of the knife. The improved end play adjustor assembly increases the servicability of the assembly and provides a more uniform slice of meat.
A still further improvement afforded by the present invention is the elevator lock and release mechanism which greatly facilitates removal of excess movement in the elevator assembly.
A still further improvement arising from the present invention relates to an improved oscillator and associated mechanism.